Chapter 7 - Z
The emergency room waiting area of Brigham and Women's Hospital smelled of harsh antiseptic and burnt coffee.
Daniel sat beside me, his hands clamped between his knees, staring blankly at the swinging double doors. After the news of the crash, the atmosphere between us had shifted again—not back to anger, but into a heavy, suffocating dread.
Elaine had fled the courtroom three weeks ago a ruined woman. Stripped of her board seat at Parker Global, facing imminent federal investigations for embezzlement, and shunned by Boston elite society, she had spent her final weeks isolated in her massive Beacon Hill mansion.
And now, she was lying in an intensive care unit, hooked up to life support.
"Why would she write a letter to you?" Daniel asked, his voice hollow. "After everything she did... why you?"
"I don't know, Daniel," I replied softly.
A tall doctor with blood-stained scrubs stepped through the double doors, pulling off his surgical mask.
"Family of Elaine Parker?"
Daniel stood up instantly. "I'm her son."
The doctor looked at Daniel with a somber expression. "Mr. Parker, your mother sustained massive internal trauma in the collision. Her vehicle struck a concrete barrier at high speed. We've done everything we can to stabilize her, but her heart is failing. She doesn't have much time."
Daniel swallowed hard, his face pale. "Is she conscious?"
"Briefly," the doctor nodded. "She keeps asking for Hannah Parker."
Daniel turned to me, shock and confusion in his eyes. I stood up slowly, taking a deep breath.
"I'll go in," I said.
"Hannah, you don't have to," Daniel said, reaching out to touch my arm. "She tortured you for six years. You owe her nothing."
"I know," I said, meeting his eyes. "But I need to know why."
I followed the doctor through the sterile corridors into the trauma ICU.
Elaine looked unrecognizable. The immaculate, terrifying matriarch who had commanded boardrooms and destroyed lives was gone. In her place lay a frail, broken old woman, her skin pale grey, bruised, and hooked up to a mechanical ventilator that hissed with every artificial breath.
As I approached the bed, her eyelids fluttered open. Her clouding eyes searched the room until they found my face.
She feebly reached her hand toward the oxygen mask over her face. The nurse carefully moved it aside.
"Han... nah..." Elaine’s voice was a ragged whisper, barely audible over the mechanical beep of the heart monitor.
"I'm here, Elaine," I said, staying two steps back from the bed.
"The... letter..." Elaine gasped, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes, tracking through the bruises on her cheeks. "In my... purse..."
"The doctor told me," I said quietly. "Why did you call me here, Elaine? To cause more pain?"
"No..." Elaine choked out, her fingers twitching against the bedsheet. "To... save him... from me."
I stepped closer, frowning. "What are you talking about?"
"Daniel..." Elaine sobbed, a violent wheeze coughing in her chest. "I... I lied to him... about his father... too."
My blood ran cold. "What?"
"His father... didn't die of a heart attack..." Elaine whispered, her breath rattling in her lungs. "He... he left me... because I was... crazy. I told Daniel... he died... so he would never leave me... like his father did."
I stared at her in absolute horror. The entire foundation of Daniel's life—the grief, the fear of inherited medical conditions, the absolute devotion to his mother’s control—had been built on a total, manufactured delusion.
"You let your son believe his father died?" I whispered, disgusted beyond words. "You let him carry that burden for twenty years?"
"I... I lost my mind... when Richard left..." Elaine wept, her heart monitor spiking erratically. "When Daniel married you... I saw... I saw Richard in you. You were strong... independent. You were taking him away... just like his father left. I couldn't... lose him..."
She grabbed my sleeve with a sudden, desperate burst of strength, her knuckles turning white.
"The letter... has... Richard's location..." Elaine gasped, her breathing becoming shallow and rapid. "He's alive... in Vermont. Tell Daniel... I'm sorry... tell him..."
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.
The heart monitor flatlined.
The flat tone echoed through the room like an alarm bell. Nurses and doctors instantly rushed past me, pushing medical carts toward the bed.
"She’s in cardiac arrest! Charge to 200! Clear!"
I backed out of the room, my hand pressed against my mouth, as the medical team began chest compressions.
I stepped back through the double doors into the waiting room. Daniel stood up immediately, stepping toward me with panic in his eyes.
"Hannah? What happened? Is she okay?"
May you like
I looked at him, holding the thick yellow envelope the doctor had handed me from Elaine's purse.
"Daniel," I said, my voice shaking uncontrollably as I held out the envelope. "Your mother is gone. But before she died... she gave me this."
